Reports on the progress of Congress’s Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction in its quest to identify $1.2 trillion in savings by November 23, 2011 are decidedly mixed. An open hearing on October 26 yielded some hand-wringing, but little in the way of new information about the final outcome. An October 27, 2011 article in The Hill hints that the committee may be deadlocked.
Time to De-friend Bad Federal Contractors
Waste and fraud among federal government contractors and vendors is nothing new. Congress after Congress has tried to put an end to the abuses to no avail. Although the number of contractors added to the Excluded Parties List System (identifying parties excluded from receiving federal contracts and other benefits, usually as a result of fraudulent or improper behavior) has increased in recent years, an October 2010 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that the lack of diligence by several federal agencies to root out waste and fraud is costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
Zombie Budget: Payments to the Deceased
Halloween is around the corner, which means that in the coming weeks it will be more important than ever to be on the lookout for signs of the zombie apocalypse. Should those signs start to appear, any possible advantage for the living over the undead will be of the utmost importance. Tragically, the zombies have a head start in gathering resources for any impending battle, and their chief financial backer appears to be the federal government. Because when it comes to giving money to dead people, the government is in a class of its own, and while it might be tempting to forgive the feds for their confusion – the latest rash of imbursements for the dead involves federal employees, who are sometimes difficult to distinguish from zombies – taxpayers surely deserve better.
The Shovel-Ready Jobs Swindle
The money would be spent on a variety of infrastructure projects, such as improved highways, railways, and transit systems. The national infrastructure bank, according to Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), would end up functioning as a “public private partnership like Fannie Mae.” Such a comparison should give taxpayers heartburn.
To Honor The Fallen, Stop Wasting Money
When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, lawmakers decreed that the new House and Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittees would not accept earmark requests. The decision to keep earmarking out of DHS funding decisions seemed to show that members of Congress truly believed in protecting national security. It also made the point that elected officials in Washington know how easy it is for opportunistic legislators to leverage a crisis for parochial benefit.
Slash Spending Now!
President Obama was quite clear on his expectations for a deal to raise the debt limit: “The only bottom line that I have is that we have to extend this debt ceiling through the next election, into 2013.” While the President blatantly telegraphed that he cared only about his own reelection rather than taking responsibility for the nation’s fiscal issues, House Republicans offered solutions that would have ensured that lawmakers remained accountable for their actions, instead of simply giving elected officials a pass. However, congressional leaders spun their wheels as they found it impossible to negotiate with a wavering White House.
Without Major Reforms, SSDI Program Headed for Insolvency
According to a June 14, 2011 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) trust fund is on track to run out of money by 2018. Although the SSDI’s financial woes have been exacerbated by a dramatic increase in claims resulting from a weak economy, the program’s problems run much deeper.
Multi-Billion Dollar CMS Overpayments Continue
Healthcare, General Waste
CCAGW Supports Boehner’s Budget Control Act
With the clock ticking and the nation’s economic future hanging in the balance, the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) urged all members of Congress to support House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) Budget Control Act of 2011. The Congressional Budget Office found that the Budget Control Act would reduce the deficit by $22 billion in fiscal year 2012 and $917 billion over 10 years, which is greater than the $900 billion debt ceiling increase.
The Pig Book is Alive and Well
Congress is supposed to be on a no-pork diet in 2011. After Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) nonbinding one-year earmark moratorium passed in the Senate on November 16, 2010, and as more and more politicians began to speak publicly about the importance of ending pork-barrel spending, longtime earmark opponents like Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) began to think that the earmark era might finally be coming to a close. Those prospects seemed even rosier when President Obama announced that he would veto any bill containing earmarks during his 2011 State of the Union Address.